John Sickels looks at a number of minor leaguers who are worthy of a promotion to the big leagues.

Erubiel Durazo has been liberated. Corey Patterson is playing well and has a solid hold on his job now. Eric Hinske is established in Toronto. But there remain many young players in the minor leagues just waiting for a chance to play in the majors.

Here are some of the best players in the minor leagues still waiting for a job. These are players who have little, if anything, left to prove at the minor-league level, but for whatever reason have yet to receive a full shot from their parent organizations. Some of these guys will get chances, as soon as roster crunch problems are solved in some cases. Others are likely to end up as trade bait. For this report, a player doesn't have to technically be a rookie; some of these guys have too much service time to qualify, but all of them are still young and inexperienced enough to be considered prospects.

At some point later this year, we'll look at guys who are a little older and more in the journeyman category, but who are still worthy of trials in the Show. The line is hard to draw in some cases, so if there is someone you think should be on this list who isn't there, they may be mentioned in the later article.